Paweł Janaszek's name is familiar to nearly every Polish individual who has ever tried legalizing his or her status in the United States. Many people say he helped them with the most difficult immigration cases. Recently, however, an increasing number of his clients are having problems at the immigration department. Their cases have been denied and some of them may be facing deportation. Janaszek, however, has not been available to respond to these complaints.
Janaszek has many friends. He is exceptionally nice and in spite of the fact that he is not a lawyer, he knows the immigration law. Many people say that if it weren't for him they would have had to leave America a long time ago.
When Marek (who declined to give his last name) first met him he was also impressed, until his case was firmly denied by the immigration office in April this year. The immigration office justified its denial by saying that Marek's case was based on fraudulent documents and that the company that was sponsoring him had been out of business for eight years. It turned out that Marek had never seen the document nor known it was submitted on his behalf. The document turned out to be forged. Marek said that the lawyer whose signature was put on the document denied he had ever had anything to do with this case (cases done by immigration consultants require the signature of a lawyer cooperating with the consultant). What is more, Marek's previously issued work permit was revoked.
As a result, Marek and his family may be facing deportation. Although he has not received the deportation letter he is preparing himself for the worst-case scenario. "In the past people would get denials and that was it. Now the denial automatically means that the deportation procedure has been started," says Michael DiRaimondo, a lawyer who has now taken over Marek's case.
Marek and his wife came to the United States in July 2001 on tourist visas. When they decided to stay and started looking for a way to legalize their stay somebody referred them to Janaszek. "I met with him in October 2001. When I couldn't find a sponsor he said he could get us one and that was all legal," said Marek. Facing no other option, many immigrants decide to follow the advice of an agency that is reknowned in their community. They also tend to believe the assurances that all is done in accordance with the law.
Soon the couple received work permits and it looked like all was going smoothly. Marek says that Janaszek priced his services at $12,000 on top of which Marek had to pay $4,000 in immigration fees. Marek was supposed to be sponsored based on section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allowed illegal immigrants to obtain legal status provided that they were able to find an employer willing to hire them. However, in order to apply for a green card under this section one had to have been in the U.S. in December 2000 and submit the paperwork by the end of April 2001. Marek did not meet any of these criteria. The immigration consultant suggested the so-called substitution – his case was to replace another from which somebody else had withdrawn. "However, even in this case he needed to have been here in 2000," DiRaimondo points out.
DiRaimondo says that in the last six months he has seen some 10 individuals who sought Janaszek's assistance and whose cases were denied. "In most of those cases the clients did not qualify for green cards in the first place. Often they were able to obtain a work permit at the beginning, only to get a denial later in the process, when their cases were reviewed by the immigration bureau (US Citizenship and Immigration Service). In Marek's case, we are also dealing with a document forgery accusation. So in fact, these people were paying to prepare their paperwork for deportation," DiRaimondo says.
Another problem is that these clients whose cases have been denied have no way of getting in touch with Janaszek, as he is away from his office, which is, however, still open for clients. His secretary says her boss is in Poland on a sick leave and provides clients with a phone number. When "Nowy Dziennik" called the number we were only able to leave a message for Janaszek. A visit to Janaszek's office at Dey Street in Lower Manhattan a couple days earlier ended with his assistant kicking reporters out of the door.
In spite of all this, Janaszek has many supporters in the Polish-American community. "Which lawyer does not submit phony documents? Otherwise many cases would simply not go through," said Dorota (who declined to give her last name), Janaszek's former client, who came to the U.S. in 1992 illegally and has stayed. "He submitted my case based on work-sponsorship and I really have no reasons to complain," she says, adding that she had boundless trust in him. "Maybe because so many of my friends recommended him and he had helped so many of them. At the same time his services were cheaper than others and he was an extremely nice person," says Dorota, who got her green card 11 years ago.
Meanwhile, DiRaimondo is wondering why the immigration authorities are still allowing this one agency to operate even though they have found it guilty of so many violations. "My theory is that thanks to such agencies they catch illegal immigrants. Poles are hardworking people. They seek help at agencies where they can communicate in their own language and whom they trust. Such things should not be happening".
